Ash Grunwald - one man band

Mon 4th Jun, 2007 in Features

Ash Grunwald is fast becoming one of Australia’s premier blues and roots musicians and if you still haven’t heard the music, you’ve more then likely heard the name. He has been the host of the popular JJJ Roots N’ All program, and over the year’s has toured every part of the country.

For the Live At The Corner album (songs from his first two releases plus Willie Dixon’s Spoonful featuring Ian Collard on harmonica) Ash won the 2005 MBAS Vic / Tas and Australian Blues awards Album Of The Year and Solo / Duo Of The Year. In addition to being nominated once again for the Best Blues and Roots album at the ARIAs, and Victorian Blues award for Male Vocalist Of The Year.

Ash has reinvigorated blues music with his captivating delivery. He has revived the old tradition of the One Man Band, a tradition that dates back many centuries. It defies conventional notions of technique and instrumentation. In reality it is simply one man playing multiple instruments in unison. It is only limited by the mechanical capabilities and inventiveness of its creator, and despite the fact that it is generally an isolated novelty, it is a phenomenon with some identifiable historical continuity.

What is it about the – œone man band’ that interests Ash?
“I love the idea of the one man band with the gadgets and strings, the one man band has a very direct primal simple groove to it, its really good for dancing and connecting to the audience. I think it’s a great thing if you see a guy buskin with pedals and bass drums on his back. What happens is you want to make your sound big, you innovate in different ways, you use your feet here and there and develop your own sound like Xaviar Rudd has done.”

But Ash’s music hasn’t always been the style he is playing today; there has been a progression towards his current sound. His first album Introducing Ash Grunwald was quite different with the straight blues style that he played with his steel guitar. It was the style of his earliest influences, Delta blues. Later he began to use more rhythmic methods to get a more upbeat sound. “3-4 yrs ago I started going for more upbeat to make it a one man band with the percussion. On the recording side there was lots of percussion. It was heavily influenced by Tom Waits, it had lots of loops and a lot of layering of sound.”

He also mentions that his early music was much more sparse then it is now. How do you classify your music with regard to genre?
“I always have thought of myself as a blues’ player but I’m pushing to call it blues now, if its blues it’s modern or a new form of blues.”

What is it about the blues music that attracts you to the genre?
“The soulfulness! There’s a lot of black American sense of soul like James Brown, the most soulful is the old south blues players, they aren’t even theoretically musicians but their music is real and it’s from them…”

Blues music was traditionally about struggle and oppression, as the times have changed socially, has the focus of the music changed? “A lot of people often think it was about struggle and oppression, those people came from that area, and the music isn’t necessarily sad and dull. I played in a joint in Memphis jammed and the crowd got more into funky stuff – when I played a slow blues number they all got bored. I thought it might have been a cliché that it was their hard times that made their music. Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker both came from poverty, its not a cliché they really are that poor.”

We’ve got a strong blues scene here in Melbourne with the support of the Melbourne blues Appreciation Society, how essential is the MBAS to blues in Australia?
“Very essential to my career, it was through them that I first started getting up on stage at open mic nights they sent me to Memphis; they’ve been great for my career. Memphis was a competition and it went well. I got through the heats and got into the finals.”

Is it just as hard to break into the blues scene as it is the mainstream rock scene…is there much difference in the process in the industry?
“Blues is easier because its smaller, but that’s not to say we don’t have world class players we do.
The rock scene has been inaccessible to blues players but with the term – œroots’ its much easier. Roots players can become stars here. Ben Harper came to Australia and helped the scene and John Butler is another one.”

Ash says that he never really set out to make a career out of music but rather it just seemed to hit him one day that it was his career.
“When I realised I’d been trying to make it work, my girlfriend wasn’t working and I was paying all the bills I remember I was stressed over money, and then I realised that I was paying for all these things with my music. I had a theory if I got to the level where I was making a living from my music, It would improve because I was playing everyday. At the time you don’t see yourself improve but looking back at past albums you see it.

What is the most important thing for any player to focus on?
“The main thing I care about is individually, having your own sound. I see a lot of young bands, soloists with lap steel with the stomp box and didgeridoo and they sound a lot like Xaviar Rudd, but if they keep doing it and release albums they will eventually develop their own style. I hope that’s where I’m at now.”

What social or political issues are you most affected by in today’s world?
“I don’t specifically write to be political, I tired to leave it out but I think the world being like it is, its hard not to. I wrote songs over the years and have left them to the side for that reason, but I regret it! I did put a song about Iraq in this album; I don’t think they should be there because there were no weapons of mass destruction, so they changed the reason for being there to freeing people.”

Ash says he recalls learning about the Vietnam War through the song Only 19 by Redgum, and it made him think about war and the horror of war. There are songs out today that rightfully protest patriotism and remind us to stop focusing on being a patriot and look at the death and destruction and stand up and say NO. That’s what we should be focusing on, but there is also the issue of just how much power we have to put the brakes on war, Ash’s song entitled Tank is a song about us being able to see what they are doing but we cant stop that tank going down its destructive path, it keeps moving along no matter who much we might disagree with it.

He says he felt compelled to write about war and would like to see more songwriters take the opportunity to speak about such issues.

Ash Grunwald’s Give Signs is out now